Gears of War 3 - Textures

[moose]

Wanted to post up some texture work from the Gears of War games! Haven't posted much of anything in so long... feels good to post again!!

Was responsible for weapons, few creatures, some vehicles, some characters in Gears 3, and UI for all 3 games. Art Direction from Chris Perna, concepts by James Hawkins, and all of the models made by the crazy talented modelers here: Kevin Lanning, Pete Hayes, Chris Wells, Mike Kime, Mark Morgan. Character shader was created by Jordan Walker, which had an enormous impact on the quality of flesh rendering. Few pieces were touched by a few people in the texture stage, noted where that happened below.

Gears 3 Character & Creature work:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2976372/gearsart/gears_char_csam.jpg
Sam Byrne, mesh by Chris Wells. Her face, hair, and tatoo were done by Chris W, she went through a lot of revisions before we found what we wanted.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2976372/gearsart/gears_char_bernie.jpg
This is Bernie, she was super fun. Chris Wells and I both worked on her face.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2976372/gearsart/gears_char_clayton.jpg
Clayton was a big collaboration, his body was done by Kevin Lanning (fun fact, his body is a reskin of Cole), helmet by Kime, and Jay Hawkins did the memorial tattoo. I was responsible for all the details, graffiti, other tattoos, and technically implementing it. His body required a 2nd uv set since the upper body and arms are mirrored on the main mesh. Allowed for much higher resolution for the sayings and tattoos!

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2976372/gearsart/gears_char_clayHelm.jpg
Clay's helm, mesh by Kime.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2976372/gearsart/gears_char_credshirtHelmet.jpg
Generic redshirt cog soldier helmet for Gears 3, model by Kime.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2976372/gearsart/gears_char_civcole.jpg
Superstar Cole! Chris Wells made some edits to him, he originally had gold jewelry all over, but we changed it to platinum.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2976372/gearsart/gears_char_Grunt.jpg
Upresed Locust grunt for Gears 3. Doesn't appear in single player, only in MP and in Horde.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2976372/gearsart/gears_beasts_siege.jpg
Siege Beast, single player locust torture-catapult.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2976372/gearsart/gears_beasts_tempest.jpg
Tempest, final boss, Myrah's mount, dragonbeetle! This thing was so much fucking fun. The majority of it was hand painted, and the metals are driven by a gold shader in game. The wings were my favorite part :D Entire critter has 3 materials. Chris Wells posted the model up on Zbrush Central: http://www.zbrushcentral.com/zbc-thread-gallery.php?t=162703

[moose]

Vehicles:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2976372/gearsart/gears_veh_centaur.jpg
centaur tank from Gears 2. The shader supported snow & mud buildup on the wheels that never made it in.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2976372/gearsart/gears_veh_rattruck.jpg
Truck you ride in during a mission in Gears 3, and in a few cinematics around Anvil's Gate.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2976372/gearsart/gears_veh_sub01.jpg
Submarine, used to travel to Azura. This thing is massive in game, uvs were spread out across 4 materials.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2976372/gearsart/gears_veh_sub02.jpg
Sub pods the player rides in, as well as the 1st person view of the sub pod. Had a lot of fun in here, put a few LOST references in there :)

Weapons:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2976372/gearsart/gears_weap_sawedoff.jpg
Sawed off! Love it, hate it.... had a lot of fun putting way too much detail on it. Took a day to texture, was fun giving it a bunch of life, even if you'd never see it in game :)

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2976372/gearsart/gears_weap_oneshot.jpg
the One Shot, another new gun to Gears 3. High powered insta-gib sniper rifle.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2976372/gearsart/gears_weap_vulcan.jpg
The Vulcan, the co-op mini gun of death and destruction!

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2976372/gearsart/gears_weap_digger.jpg
Digger Launcher, another new gun in Gears 3. It fires a little chompy man of teeth, and it eats people.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2976372/gearsart/gears_weap_grenades.jpg
All of the grenades in Gears of War: Frags, Smoke, Ink, Incendiary.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2976372/gearsart/gears_weap_gorgon.jpg
Gorgon, a gun we added in Gears of War 2. In Gears 3 it was changed to a fully auto pistol.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2976372/gearsart/gears_weap_boombolt.jpg
Boomshot, and Boltok!

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2976372/gearsart/gears_weap_snubhodlancer.jpg
Snub Pistol, Hammer of Dawn, and the Lancer. Chris Perna did the original skin for the Lancer, and I did some polish on it after it was re-uved, as well as beating the shit out of it for Gears 3.

[Shiniku]

Ridiculously awesome, all of it. I don't think we'll ever get another game on this generation of consoles that looks better.

I'm really impressed by the sheer detail in it all. Even in multiplayer, when i go into ghost cam and zoom in, the texture res never seems too blurry, it's crazy.

Never would have guessed Carmine is a reskin of cole in this one. pretty cool though, you definitely did a lot to differentiate them.

[JDinges]

Sick :)

[RazorBladder]

I was waiting for this!

Gorgeous texture work, especially on the Tempest Mount Boss wings like you said! MOOSE PIMPAGE! FINALLY! :D

[Zipfinator]

Mmmmm.

[Razgriz]

Simply magnificent. Thanks to the art, the Gears universe has become more and more alive, more realized, more of a world unto itself. These are simply gorgeous assets.

[ScudzAlmighty]

.... I just..... I don't even.......... crap.

Seriously killer work here, and I'm glad the advances to the enging really let the textures shine this time around. I think the overall art and clarity to the visuals is probably the most impressive part of the whole game.
If the Sawed-off took a day to texture, how long would something like the One-shot or Gorgon take? Is it relative to the size of the model at all or just a case of "when it's done"?

Also just generally curious about weather the model has base texture work on it before it comes to you and you're refining or if you do the whole thing from scratch? Just curious about how much freedom you have in the process I guess.

p.s. This is the first time in any game using unreal that I've been impressed with the character shaders so please by Jordan a beer for me and some day some how I'll get ya back ;)

[ae.]

wow

[JacqueChoi]

Absolutely H'amazing!

Any chance we can see more wires n texture flats?

Would love to see a breakdown of PSDs.

[megalmn2000]

Very nice stuff! It's nice to see artworks from Gears of War 3! Thanks guys!

[daphz]

...wow... simply awesome.

[cholden]

I love these threads. thank you!

[beancube]

Nice! my fav GOW thread so far. Love seeing the end product all come together!

[Alberto Rdrgz]

MY MY MY! Thanks!

[KyleJensen]

This texture work is incredible. Very inspirational! :D

[DaveSilver]

I have to say, while I was playing Gears 3, my favorite part of the entire game, art-wise, was the textures. You guys did such a great job making everything look so dirty and used. I'm so happy to see these posted. Great job Moose, truly incredible stuff.

[rollin]

hey ho moose.. this is just YIHAAAA !! :thumbup:

[pity]

This is fantastic! I need all!) Thank you!

[Nerf Bat Ninja]

I love you. Sexually. Long time.

[shawnell3d]

i jizzed on each image

[g2000]

Oh man so many awesome art,great job on the characters,weapons and vehicles,thanks for sharing :poly142:

[JR]

Jesus... Christ.

I think this is the most awesome belong all the other GOW3 threads. Because this one show all the talents combined. You guys rock. Thanks for sharing.

[ES_139]

what??? my brain just turned to mush.
amazing stuff, congrats!

[Tenchi]

I'm very grateful that you guys post your work, it's very top notch, inspirational stuff ^^

[Jeff Parrott]

New post from moose! YEAH! Awesome work too. They need to release Gears games every month so you all keep posting. :D

[Jessica Dinh]

oh my god these are so crazy... mind is blown *_*

[clockchrome]

magnificent :poly008:

[luke]

WOAH this is so freakin awesome, thanks for posting this up!! as others said, defiantly going to be the best looking game of this xbox generation

[Snefer]

killer stuff man! :D

[Lonewolf]

YAY MORE PORN!

i was waiting for that

can u post some of the high poly of those? (the one that havnt been posted like weapons and vehicles)

[coots7]

awesome job, you people at Epic do amazing work. What are texture sizes looking like? symmetrical UVs used at all?

[metalliandy]

Very inspirational stuff! Thanks for posting :)

[toxic_h2o]

hot damn this is some amazing texture work. I'm jelly and also interested in Coots7 questions as well. :D

[SCB]

No wonder your studio is called EPIC, amazing work!

[shotgun]

good stuff moose!
i particularly like the puke on the old chick's boots
the mud on the gangsta's pants is also very well done, just the right amount of bump

[r13]

I nominate collecting all the GOW3 materials and archiving them in the wiki :D

[Twoflower]

Awesome!

is it just me or does it look like a zipper keeps the two throwing arms together on Siege Beast? : P

[Kot_Leopold]

Epic work is EPIC! <----see what I did there :D

[Oniram]

fantastic work!

[AyalaN3D]

Awesome! Great job from all you guys! Texture work is clean and crisp! Loving this hard work!

[d1ver]

Thank you very much, Moose.
All this Epic epicness deserves a frontpage plug!

[Electro]

They're beautiful :')

[[HP]]

Jesus christ It's hard not to be amazed by such quality. Definitely some of the best texturing I've seen lately.

I would pay big to attend / watch a workshop from you on some of your workflow and tricks for texturing, I bet you've got some wicked tricks!

[Rapture117]

I'm an aspiring Level Designer, but actually got a little misty eyed looking at all of these images. After seeing these, I'm very much interested on learning how to texture on the side, and was wondering if you have any good tips, tutorials, sites, etc I could go to and really learn more about. Thanks Moose and beautiful job man!

Nick

[moose]

wow thanks so much guys! Really know how to make a guy feel good! It's really special to post this stuff and see your all's responses, having got my start here at polycount (and skindom!) so many years ago :poly106:

ae, megalmn, cholden, alberto , shadowforce, Dave Silver, pity, jramauri, Jessica, clockchrome, luke, scb, oniram, ayalan3d, electro: thank you guys!! Means a lot!

Shiniku: thanks!! That is high praise, means a lot to hear that! Don't forget Space Marine, Dark Souls, Deus Ex, Rage, Batman, Crysis, and probably Uncharted 3, Saints Row 3, Battlefield... list goes on and on and on and on!

JDingles: :poly106:

RazorBladder: thanks!! haha yeah it has been a while! Will try not to take 8 years between pimps from now on, need to start posting more!

Zipfinator: http://bit.ly/riC0Wr

Scudz: Thanks!! I think what happened with the sawed off is that I had a great day that day. Was in a crazy good groove hitting all the right parts at the right time, and to top it off the unwrap for it was perfect (thanks Pete!). Had a very clear vision & idea of what to do, the process went very smoothly on it. I usually spend more time on things, just was on a roll that day. The One Shot was a lot longer, and spent more time on the Vulcan to add some animating shader stuff for the gun engine belt and bullet belt. Size of the weapon does play a huge role too, as the Gorgon was a very quick skin. I also had a very specific workflow down for the Locust weapons. A mesh like the Submarine takes a lot longer. Sometimes the modelers will beat the hell out of the mesh or put crazy detail on it, and other times large surfaces will be left blank and I will add extra normals with crazybump. and yes, Jordan is amazing :)

jacque: thanks!! Chris Wells (wallabyjoe) posted some wires in his character thread, don't want to steal his thunder! Don't think I'll be able to show any flats or psd breakdowns. I will say that I started using a lot more layers than I should have been. I'm pretty anal about organizing layers (most of the time), start with an AO base, break parts and pieces out into layer groups w/ masks to define an area, lots of local painting, and do ao coloring around the mesh on specific parts. I use a lot of clipping layers, masks, adjustment layers. Keep my Diffuse, Spec, Normal, Masks, and Emissives all in one PSD (or psb). It is crucial that any detail you add to your diffuse go into your spec, and sometimes your normal - keeping all that stuff together in one place makes it easier to maintain.

daphz: thanks dude! fucking love your work!

beancube: dunno, Chris W, Mike K, and Kevin J's are pretty awesome :)

Rollin: hiyyaaaaaa!

Nerf Bat: :poly106:

shawnell3d: Moose gives shawnell3d [crusty mop]

ES_139: my brain is mush too! you guys melt my head.

tenchi: thanks!! I'm grateful of such an amazing community of people, not many forums quite like polycount.

jeffro: yah!! thanks man! I want to keep posting, have some personal art goals i want to achieve with modeling, so may be posting more!

Snef: woo!

lonewolf: Pete Hayes (yemyam) did most of the highs for the guns, will see if he'll post em.

coots, toxic: thanks! texture sizes vary. Characters were 2048 mostly (1024 in game), weapons were 1024-512, vehicles 2048-1024. There is a bit of mirroring going on, but it was used when needed and in inconspicuous locations when possible. Carmine for example needed to have an asymmetrical body texture to make sure all the writing was ok, and arm different tattoos. The base mesh had mirrored arms & chest/back. Created another set of UVs for him to unmirror the chest, back, and arms for this reason. On the tempest, his body is mostly mirrored, legs share uvs, etc. The Sub was split into multiple parts, but also mirrored.

metalliandy: thanks man! love eat3d :D

shotty: thanks duder! That puke was for you.

r13: coo :)

Twoflower: thanks! hahaha, yeah it kinda does :) When texturing him I had a naked version that id spin around like a weird naked chicken-catapult.

kot: wut

d1ver: :o

HP: whoa, thanks man!! your crisis stuff is bonkers awesome, you saying that means a lot to me. I've got a few tricks up me pant leg, would love to share knowledge with the community.

Nick: thanks!! i'm getting misty myself reading everyone's comments! :poly142: A lot of old tutorial sites seem to be gone, or im not looking in the right spots anymore :( Polycount has some great info, both in threads and on the wiki! Some advise to keep in mind while texturing: always keep your intended materials in mind. Ask yourself while texturing "what kind of surface is this, and what is around it?" Granted, the textures I've done aren't "real," but its how your display it next to other materials that matters (metal to leather, flesh to cloth, rubber to plastic). Study stuff, and don't be afraid to use/look at reference. Before starting any texture i always make a sheet of images to get inspired by, metal types, paint, rust, bolts, colors, etc. The other thing I will say is practice, practice, practice! People don't release pure SDK's much anymore, but the SDK thread does still exist. Download people's models, and just texture it! It is a fantastic exercise, keeps you on your toes and gets you to think in the constraints of someone else's UV maps.

[Donavonyoung]

This is just so amazing. I really have enjoyed this thread at great lengths. And if possible a breakdown of your workflow would be greatly appreciated. Awe inspiring work mate.

[Ravenslayer]

amazing work! would love to see a textureflat of one of the characters if that's possible?

[Maph]

Totally gobsmacked! You Epic lot are so... epic at what you do!
Ditto on the request of texture flats if at all possible!

Now, time to save all those goodies to my ref folder.

[LRoy]

Fantastic work dude. Thanks for thanking the time to answer everyones questions. Epic took over polycount this week haha

[vofff]

You guys are totally epic!!!

[iniside]

The first one is hot!

Love you characters, especially how they are looking in game. amazing.

[dtschultz]

Awesome work, moose! Those metals are so beautiful. I've got some new study materials, lol. Thanks, man.

[Andrew Mackie]

These are gorgeous! The sawed-off is my favorite, the textures are beautiful and I am blown away that it only took you a day to create them for it.
Thanks for sharing your work :]

[|Buddy|]

You guys are pimping! Some nice texture work there.

Glad to see all the artwork surfacing, rarely we're seeing art dumps of this scale.

[Goobatastic]

Great work

Just wondering how far you take the hardsurface on the characters and vehicles before you take them into zbrush?

Cheers

[mastershokhan]

lovely

[XRevan23]

amazing stuff

[YemYam]

Awwwww yea! Moosy making my mechy bittles look good! For the weapons and vehicles I really focused more on giving Maury a clean unwrap versus baking tons of crazy detail stuff into the process files. I knew he would go sick and do stuff with the textures and crazy bump in 1/10th the time I could do in zbrush - plus it gave him more freedom to input his creative ideas into the model. Throughout the entire dev cycle I wouldn't be too stoked on my stuff but I knew once I handed it off to Moosy he would make it super tight and I would be proud of the final in-game product. F'n teamwork! :)

Lonewolf: I'm in the process of re-rendering all of my stuff, my existing renders were super quick and dirty lazy AO renders that I'd do at 3am the night before an art meeting. The talent is so good here and the latest batch of art dumps have been so impressive I felt I needed to polish up my stuff a tad before being brave enough to post. I've been a long time lurker but always too shy to post stuff but all my friends have been taunting me so I guess it's time. ;)

Pete

[YemYam]

http://www.flickr.com/photos/yemyam/sets/72157605739347615/

Forgot I had some old Gears 1 stuff from a long time ago. Didn't feel it warranted a new thread since it was so old. I'll post new Gears 2 & 3, UT3 and Samaritan tech demo stuff once I get em re-rendered.

[onelung]

Sexy as hell! Damn your entire team!

[Sirdelita]

You guys should release your morph target auto rigger :)

[Ahdermot]

love the textures!! especially of clay and the locust drone!! would love it if you posted more :) the red-shirt cog gear as he is my favorite!

[killnpc]

Beautiful work moose!